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LEO
If you want a job, volunteer or apprentice yourself in the best setting you can find in ‘08. If given a choice, go for a hands-on situation to pick up skills from co-workers. Your most vulnerable spot is your dependence upon recognition, so get used to it and put yourself in work settings where you get plenty of applause.
Leo is an impulse buyer with champagne tastes; this is a great year to get a handle on debt, and be realistic about extravagant impulsive ways. Leo is exceptionally generous and not particularly practical. Budgets and investments set up in 2008 will support you well for years to come.
Unattached Leos invite relationship opportunities, though it is extremely valuable this year to clear the field of any lingering negativity by putting on an elaborate release ritual (invite at least one witness). Leo prefers to keep old loves as friends, and this can be confusing to everyone else.
Involved Leo, pay attention to how your body responds to time with a beloved. Are you healthier and steadier, do you share common daily rhythms? Are there ample cooperative, win-win situations with plenty of mutual support? Leo shines more than the sun itself when happy in love.
This year is the perfect year for a health makeover or job retraining. Stay fierce and steadfast in your progress; make sure you have an audience for your efforts. You know you’ll do anything for applause, and if people are watching there’s no way out but to be successful.
Gretchen Lawlor © Mother Tongue Ink 2008
Starcodes Aug 1 2008
Heather Roan Robbins
Welcome to the peak of Leo season, as the Moon joins the Sun, Venus and Mercury in Leo. It brims with generosity and spectacle, but we truly are the center of our worlds, immersed in our own experience, and may find hard to get out of it to walk in another’s shoes. So how can we make this useful?
Leo helps us understand through expression; whether we see an opera and so come to understand, in a grand and symbolic form, something true about ourselves or our family dynamics, or listen to a blues rift that soothes the soul as it expresses some ineffable sadness of our own. Or watch the sunrise and so can feel the sun rising in our life, a return of hope, of possibilities.
Leo’s shadow is “Well, enough about you, let’s talk about me…” and just about every one of us has a corner of their soul whispering this, demanding more time. We cannot insist that others pay attention or be our audience, but we can give this to ourselves, and honor what part of us wants to be acknowledged.
This line up in Leo can help us shine, extend ourselves and be willing to be seen, the trick is can we appreciate our own self–reflections, let it be enough that we think we’re cool, even if the press isn’t writing enough about us this week. And to stay self-responsible; we got ourselves into this joy or sorrow, and we’re responsible for the process. Leo at its best can bring out our inner teacher or leader, someone who focuses the collective attention for the benefit of all.
Whatever we feed with attention will grow. If we don’t like what is going down, it doesn’t work to withhold emotionally, because that in itself is a form of attention, and the craving is for attention, not necessarily good attention, bad attention will do. Certainly a big fight will only feed the problem. But let’s redirect our attention away from behavior we truly do not want, and shine our light on what we do.
If we get lonely and don’t have a big enough audience, instead of demanding attention, it helps to figure out how to offer it. Be a great listener, extend a helping hand, and be loved back in return.
Today’s New Moon, Sun, Venus and Mercury in Leo feeds our extroverted capacities; which can be a relief for those who run naturally shy and entertaining, or obnoxious, in those who are already a diva. It can hurt to feel underappreciated or taken for granted. The secret is to take turns and share the love.
As the weekend begins, communication glitches can intensify the drama as Mercury sesqui-squares Pluto. We can be as narcissistic in our self-criticism as we are in our enthusiasm. People can make mountains out of molehill because they love the excitement, but not the work, of the really mountainous issues. This is a time to make the most out of life, fill up with the balm of sunshine both inside and out.
Leo energy is social as all get out but also remarkably stubborn, people are as agreeable as pie, until crossed, and then watch the heels dig in. Sometimes a blatant play to their ego comes in handy, but all that’s really needed is to respect their position, and give them honor even as we disagree.
Next week Venus in Leo makes a few intense challenges which ups the volume on emotional extremes; great for the arts if tough on the heartstrings, but some loss, or loss potential, can also call us into a deep corner of our heart and let us feel what truly matters. We can make anything a party if we decide to take it with grace, if not we can get irritated with anything that is not a party, like work, health and responsibilities. Or spend way too much. Our sense of beauty needs to be fed, but we don’t have to overindulge; though a few flowers on the table will help.
Venus joins Mars and Saturn in Virgo on Tuesday and the first signs of fall's agenda drifts in. We calm down the hyperbole, but have to make sure we don’t loose our humor in the process. Compassion comes easier but so does a certain nervous analysis. As Mercury opposes Neptune towards the end of the week, we can’t see too clearly anyway, and should take notes, ask questions, but leave our minds open.
While the week is mostly sociable, some tension that sparks early on can entrench and set off fireworks later in the week as Mars opposes Uranus. While we are mostly safe, watch the weird accidents increase, and play it safe around equipment. The tension may be between people, or between conflicting desires in our own life, or tension towards a fighting a good fight. We may crave a break in routine, a break to freedom, shaking up the status quo, shifting the foundations. Bottled energy expands; let’s find a way to do it safely.
Friday, Aug 1 we want what we want, when we want it under this New Leo Moon. If we’re hard on ourselves, we don’t want to be contradicted, we want sympathy; play out the scene or refuse to participate, don’t bother being the voice of reason. Live fully, let everyone shine in their own way, and ignore another at a peril. Later, watch for manipulative language, but respond to the truth underneath the hyperbole. Be wild and live on the grand scale tonight.
Saturday, Aug 2 generosity opens up possibilities, give and we will receive as the Moon conjunct Venus in Leo and Mercury challenges Jupiter. Be stingy and be lonely. But real generosity tends to what they want, not just what we want to give. Evening, our tastes refine and our nerves get edgy as the Moon enters thoughtful Virgo; if some small complaint cramps our style, let’s slow down and look at what calls our attention rather than resist.
Sunday, Aug 3 brings serious note, a whiff of concerns to come as the Moon conjuncts Saturn in Virgo. Attend to loose ends and dangling responsibilities; plant seeds or ideas to sprout after Labor Day. Just watch a bustling officiousness with others, our pace has to be personal. Evening is collaborative and generous, good times mingle with social responsibility.
Monday, Aug 4 brings a tough morning as the Moon conjuncts Mars and opposes Uranus, and hints of conflicts to come. Notice the illusion of opposition, and look to the common ground underneath. Tension that springs now may simmer later in the week. Watch for a chance to heal a misunderstanding midday; heal, don’t hit them over the head with it. Later afternoon can leave us wondering if our situation will ever improve. But by evening the solution, or at least companionship in the process, seems closer. If we reach out tonight we’ll be well received as the Moon enters social Libra and Venus trines Pluto.
Tuesday, Aug 5 Venus joins Mars and Saturn in Virgo. A generally pleasant, cooperative and productive day. Feelings flow, some, but not all, of us want to understand the emotion; analysis it and define it, and find unique ways to express it, but more is understood by watching behavior than dissecting words.
Wednesday, Aug 6 the Libra Moon helps keep us cool and friendly under trying circumstances. Bad weather can cause collisions, whether this is actual or metaphorical. If the visibility in the air or in the heart, is limited, move with consciousness as Mars oppose Uranus and Mercury opposes Neptune. Keep track of the car keys. Some impulse or tension demands action. Rhetoric can inspire us or lead us astray; listen and check the facts. Exercise, but play it safe. And don’t ignore tornado warnings. Soothe tonight as Moon makes supportive aspects to Neptune and Mercury.
Thursday, Aug 7 watch the retribution for yesterday’s sparks; let it go and get back to a more personal agenda. Honor a longing for introspection, a breathe of solitude after a busy week; keep the social schedule light and do something of substance as the Scorpio Moon sextiles Venus and Saturn. Make surgical decision, what to cut off, weed, and what to keep, but keep it to essentials.
www.roanrobbins.com
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Year at a Glance for Aries (March 19-April 18)
Aries resents authority, yet likes to be a leader. Your fiery passion whips up power struggles this year as you battle for autonomy or champion highly public, extreme causes. You could become the poster child for a progressive movement, the warrior to transform an institution.
Of course, you may have to leave an old job, which may be just the catalyst you need. Consider staying in a job if there’s someone to mentor you. Watch for someone who is planning to move on and learn all you can from them before they go.
Your status could alter swiftly by acquiring the tools or techniques of a specialty field. Aries fades when stuck in one spot too long; you thrive on the crest of the wave, in situations calling for pioneers or warriors.
Choose companions who are willing dreamers, co-conspirators advocating for a better world. Friends will be influential in opening doors. Your passion and enthusiasm magnetize powerful support for your causes.
Aries, this is a great year to clear blockages to the flow of your physical energy for optimal, enduring health. Not only do you need to care for your body, but you also need to use it to stimulate energy flow. Aries needs to be active to be well; cultivate a healthy outlet for your destructive firestorms and frustrations at the slowness of the rest of the world. Go for a physical. Pay attention to what you eat, put “exercise” on the calendar. Habits stabilized now will tend to stick.
Gretchen Lawlor © Mother Tongue Ink 2006
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STARCODES: A far more effective astrological tool than your standard sun sign column. Starcodes is an astrological briefing that tells you what's happening with the planets now, what's the tone of this week and day, and how to best take advantage of opportunities. Is it a good day to asking a raise, fix an engine, or stay cool and gracefully bow out of a fight? The movement of the planets acts as energetic weather system. A storm affects us all differently (one person's planning a picnic while another wrangles a forest fire), but the rain or sunshine falls on all of us, and it helps to know it's coming. Contact me at RoanRobbins@aol.com if you're interested in Starcodes for your publication.
STARCODES WEEKLY is from FRIDAY to FRIDAY.
All times listed are Mountain Time. For Pacific, subtract 1 hour, For Central, add one hour, Eastern, add two. For STARCODES MONTHLY, visit Roan Robbins
Starcodes for the week of April,4th, 2008
Starcodes April 4 2008 Heather Roan Robbins
Want to start something? Start it this weekend on the first New Moon of the astrological year. This Aries New Moon is fueled with extra fire as Venus joins the Sun, Moon and Mercury in Aries on Sunday, just as the Sun activating, with some good-sized solar flares exciting our atmosphere and turning up the volume on history.
Aries likes to take risks and be the first, it craves intensity and a cause to believe in. After all the recent thoughtful Pisces complexity, it’s easy to long for a clear case of good guy versus bad guy, and so start to simplify any conflict in black and white terms. So much for political subtlety and profound rhetoric for the moment, we’re back to sound bites and snappy comebacks.
On a good day Aries encourages us to have gumption, to start over like a spring bulb cutting through mucky mulch to reach for the pale spring sunlight no matter how cold was its personal winter. This brash enthusiasm helps us face our own challenges with new fervor, helps us sort out what’s important to us and what is not, thought makes it harder to patiently finish what we’re supposed to do if we cannot see an urgent reason. Paperwork is much easier if we see a clear and desirable end result and attack it in short spurts.
The Aries season is known for its directness: a simple laugh or honest love. It’s now easier to express any thought or emotion except vulnerability or need, and this can have its awkward moments, like a kid who tells their mother off and then has to sheepishly ask for a ride to the ball park. We really want the people we love to make it easer to need them and keep our pride intact, so need them to read our clues and not make us spell it out or beg, or have them do anything which they’d hold over our head as a debt. We’d rather go it alone, thank you very much. Aries energy is openhearted but competitive and impatient. We don’t mind the other person winning, as long as we don’t loose.
But Aries doesn’t mind a fight; in fact, it’s the time of year when we see it out, from mating bulls to competing school teams. This fight can be as simple as a good pillow fight to clear the air or as belligerent as a barroom brawl. Or as serious and uncompromising as a political revolution from a people who just won’t take it anymore. This rebellious energy sparks just as those with entrenched Aries power, the military or other macho power nexus, don’t want their strength questioned.
Aries is a fire signs, ideas catch fire and so do tempers. More literally, so do abandoned property and incendiary devices. Aries can inspire us to rush into things without looking where we’re going, to shoot first and aim second. And to long for, reach for, whatever is just beyond our reach. As the weekend ends and this longing aches as Venus squares Pluto.
Early next week as the waxing Moon enters fertile Taurus is an optimal time to start seeds, indoors if the climate insists, and to plant seeds of any idea or project we’d like to grow like a weed. Lets all be careful what combustible fuel we leave lying around and thoughtfully choose where to let the fires dance, where to pour oil on the fire of enthusiasm and where to douse the flickers of contention.
Friday April 4 begins thoughtful and sweet, if emotional as the Pisces Moon conjuncts Venus, but ramps up towards a wild night wrestling with the soul as the Moon enters Aries and squares Pluto. We do not want the ordinary, crave intensity; the fire flows well without obstacles, potentially wild and joyful, but we’re willful and even small disagreements can conflagrate. Keep it simple and direct, and most of all, alive.
Saturday, April 5, keep expectation and agenda light. We speak our minds; want to do what we want to do, when we want to do it. Will tend to start many projects or wander restlessly, but not have the patience to finish. Keep activities quick and intense, and watch the sharp tools in the process. Best to break routine and find a once in a year opportunity. Brainstorm about the future and start something wonderful as the Moon hits new at 9:54 pm as Venus enters Aries tonight.
Sunday, April 6 has a difficult spin as the Sun challenges Saturn; our least convenient feelings press to be heard and can wrestle for control within and between ourselves. We may want to formalize a new beginning, but watch for an authoritative crackdown on rebellious energy. A desire to prove the point can supersede actual intelligence, but our muscles can feel so good if we tackle a more concrete challenge, like wrestling the boxes in the basement or mud in the field. Evening softens, grows stubborn and sensual as the Moon enters Taurus.
Monday, April 7 is a great day to start seeds or plant other pragmatic beginnings;
Hardworking and impatient, great for physical progress. But watch a tendency to lean into the wind, to run ahead of oneself and so get off balance, make mistakes as Mercury semi-squares Neptune. Communication could be off, accidents more likely under difficult weather or misleading circumstances. Check in with what one really needs, underneath the bustle, tonight.
Tuesday, April 8 use a wave of optimism to move forward this energized morning. Repair recently tested relationships and catch up on personal business while people are in a relatively good mood, if not exactly cooperative. Midday our stubborn streaks can duke it out, but wit quickens this afternoon and gives us more room. Listen for important messages as the Moon enters Gemini around dinnertime; the wires buzz tonight.
Wednesday, April 9 offers a chance to fix old wrongs as the Sun sextiles Chiron, if we keep talking, and listen as much as we talk. A good day for cold calls and quick new contacts. Keep it short and a dialogue; people have a short attention span. Tell as story to illustrate a point, work around the defenses rather than take them on. Let the quirks show.
Thursday, April 10 make all contacts early while people are feeling generous and cooperative. Watch expenditures under an urge to expand to excess, to give into the desire of the moment as the Sun squares Jupiter. Legal decisions and philosophical issues are on the table to debate as Mercury squares Mars later on. Edges sharpen, reflexes can twitch; let’s pay extra attention to how we move if irritated. Our self-protected walls come up, we need to nest and regroup tonight as the Moon enters Cancer tonight.
www.roanrobbins.com We'Moon
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2008 in Perspective:
By Starhawk
2008 brings us round another turn on the wheel of the year, another cycle of the earth’s journey around the sun, of birth, growth, death and rebirth. But this year is also a crossroads, a time of crucial decisions that will determine the fate of those who come after us. We have known for a long time that Mother Earth is in crisis. Many of us have lived for decades with a sense of foreboding, a hint that a future time of intense change and challenge was on the horizon.
Now the time of change has come.
Either we make major and difficult choices that will bring our lives back into balance with nature, or we proceed with the warming of the earth, the assault on her life support systems, the waging of wars and the suppression of human dreams and opportunities.
What world do we want?
Only a just world can be sustainable.
Only a world where the needs of all are balanced and met fairly can attain ecological balance. Only a world in which all people are valued, where every mind is nurtured and every spirit cherished, can muster the creativity and sheer intelligence we will need in the coming times. To work for balance, to work for survival, is to work for justice. To change, to face the crisis before us, we need to relinquish a very powerful story, one which all of us are in some way attached to. That is the story of progress, which tells us that we humans have transcended nature, are no longer bound by her limitations and constraints.
We can fly across a continent in half a day, email instantly to friends on the other side of the world, cure diseases and light the darkness. And yet with all our technological knowledge, we are still dependent on the elements of life—the air, the water, the living soil, the sun’s energy, the genetic heritage of our crops and seeds, and our mortal, animal bodies. To save the world, we must accept that we are part of the world, and come back down to earth.
Our understanding of time is part of that shift. The wheel of the year turns, bringing us again and again through the cycles of waxing and waning light, of warmth and cold, of seeding, sprouting, flowering, fruiting and decaying. But each year is unique. We are bound by the cycles of time, yet our imagination, our creativity and our love are unbounded.
Do we have the time to make the changes we know we need to make? I asked this question once in deep meditation, and the answer came back, “No.” But before I could panic or despair, I got another message. “You’re a Witch. Part the curtains of time and plant the seeds of change in that timeless place where change has already happened.” Turn the wheel, plant the seeds, follow the cycle through a new year. As you fill these pages with appointments, may they reflect many moments of pleasure, many meetings of lovers, times of rest and celebration, and the actions only you can take to bring healing and justice to this world.
© Starhawk 2007
We'Moon
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